A salute to Chief Zunino

George Lucas and a handful of his
closest associates were the only people who knew about Luke Skywalker
and Darth Vader and their saga.

There were four living Beatles, but
they didn't talk that much, let alone perform together on a stage.

If you wanted to share information with
a family member who lived far away, you wrote a letter or called that
person on the telephone, using a landline. Facebook was still far off
on the horizon. Mark Zuckerberg wouldn't even be born for another
nine years.

There were no laptops or iPhones.
People didn't text or tweet. The streets weren't filled with SUVs and
electric-powered cars.

Like everyone else who was alive in
1976, Edward Zunino couldn't imagine how completely the world would
soon change.

In January of that long ago year,
Zunino joined the Kennett Square Police Department as a full-time
officer in his hometown. He wanted to protect and serve the citizens
of Kennett Square because he loved the town.

It was a certainly a simpler time back
then, but that oversimplification is not to suggest that being a
police officer in Kennett Square in 1976 was easy. It wasn't. There
was still plenty of crime. Disputes, sometimes fueled by alcohol,
arose between people. Drug abuse was already a growing problem.
Police officers risked their lives every day that they put their
uniforms on. A sad illustration of that fact occurred only a few
years earlier, during the early-morning hours of Nov. 15, 1972, when
Kennett Square patrolmen William W. Davis and Richard J. Posey were
killed in the line of duty.

Zunino joined the force as a patrol
officer and worked his way through the ranks, handling investigations
on everything from burglaries to gang violence to the more serious
crimes that sometimes occur, even in small towns. When he
demonstrated an ability to handle these investigations—relying more
on instincts and hard work rather than technology—he was promoted
to the position of detective.

As the years passed, society changed
and law enforcement changed with it. Drug abuse skyrocketed in the
1980s, and so did the crimes associated with it. Law enforcement
agencies utilized rapidly improving technology to investigate and
prevent crimes, but the challenges they faced only grew greater. At
some point, after mass shootings in places like Jonesboro and
Littleton, police departments everywhere had to develop strategies to
respond if similar, horrific incidents were to take. As the new
century got underway, police departments had to develop strategies
against terrorism in all its insidious forms. This required a lot
more cooperation among various law-enforcement agencies.

Zunino proved himself to be as capable
collaborating with detectives and investigators from other police
departments as he was connecting with the residents of his hometown.
He was gifted at community policing, and his police work was always
founded on the bedrock of fairness and decency. He was promoted to
lieutenant and then, in 2007, to the position of chief of police.

A few years after taking over as chief,
Zunino reached 35 years of service in the police department—an
impressive milestone. At that time, Matthew Fetick, whose primary
function as mayor is to oversee the operations of the police
department, lauded Zunino for his hard work and exemplary management
style. Zunino would do whatever it took to make the department run
well, whether that meant going out to check on the town in the middle
of the night after a big storm moved through town, or showing up on
Christmas morning to cover a shift that another officer couldn't
cover. He mentored the younger officers to help train them the right
way.

According to Fetick, Zunino cared
deeply about the town he served, and paid attention to the small
details. Are there any better, more important, qualities for a small
town police chief to have than to be caring and careful about the
small details?

Zunino reached his 40-year anniversary
as a police officer in Kennett Square in January of this year. He is
now retiring from the police department after being Kennett Square's
stabilizing force in an ever-changing world since 1976.

On the night that his retirement was
announced, Fetick said, “Ed Zunino has certainly left his mark on
the Borough of Kennett Square, and we are a much better community
because of his service.”

Zunino took an oath to protect and
serve the residents and business owners of Kennett Square, and for
more than four decades, that's exactly what he did.